Waking Up in Salt Lake City

Day 1 - Tuesday, 10th February

I woke up on Tuesday morning after a wonderful 12 to 13 hours of sleep. I was still pretty exhausted from the 24 hours of travel and no sleep, so I had a chilled morning in my hotel room. I did not make an appearance until around 10:30 am when I visited Alona Tester in her room. It was awesome to finally meet her and we had a good chat for a few minutes.

View of Temple Square from the Plaza Hotel. Gorgeous!

Somehow, midday rolled around quickly and it was time for lunch at JB’s. Before I left Australia, Pat Richley-Erickson (DearMYRTLE) invited me to lunch with a few others. I finally got to meet Pat, Jill Ball (GeniAus) and Russ Worthington (Cousin Russ). I also met Katherine Wilson, Barry Kline, and the girls from In Depth Genealogy – Jennifer Alford, Shannon Combes-Bennett & Terri O’Connell. Lunch was absolutely delightful with lots of laughs and excellent conversation. I was feeling very happy for the rest of the day.

The wonderful Jill!

The wonderful Pat!
Taken by Jill Ball

After lunch I made my way over to the Salt Palace Convention Center to register. As you can tell from the selfie below, I was super excited to receive my lanyard. While I was lining up, I ran into Cheryl Hudson Passey, and my new young geneamate Dalton Smith! After registering, I headed over to the Family History Library to explore. I made my way down to Basement 2 - many people had been asking me to come since Monday arvo when I arrived. I found Alona, Helen Smith, Fran Kitto, Jenny Joyce, Hilary Gadsby from Wales, and Roger Moffat. After an exploration and meeting Pauleen Cass on the way out, I went back to my room for a rest. However, I decided I did not want a rest. I messaged Jen Baldwin to see where she was. Luckily she was in her room and up for a visitor! Woohoo! I mozied on down to the Radisson and up to her room. To say she was excited to see me is probably an understatement! I had many presents for her and one for her daughter which made her tear up a little. Awwww! We hung out for a good 45 minutes to an hour which was wonderful! THANK YOU JEN! :D 

Salt Palace Convention Center - Wow!

LANYARD! REGISTERED! YAY!

Family History Library

Helen & Me inside the Family History Library
Taken by Alona Tester

After that, I had about 90 minutes til dinner so I decided that I really did need to rest. Jill had organized a dinner for geneabloggers from the Commonwealth who were attending RootsTech & FGS. At dinner I met Sharn White, Rosemary Morgan, Tessa Keough, Alan Phillips (Alona’s Father!) and two Canadian women whose names sadly escape me at the moment. Dinner was held at the California Pizza Kitchen – my second time there, the first was in Honolulu a year ago. I had a very yummy pizza (duh!). I had decided not to get dessert, however Jill and Alan were. As the waitress was taking their order I saw a peek of the dessert menu, and what do you know, they had RED VELVET CAKE. I love anything red velvet, and had not had anything red velvet in a long time. So yes, I splurged! It was deeeelicious! Dinner was a blast and it was so wonderful to meet geneabloggers who I had been conversing with online for the past couple of years. It also provided me with some familiar faces before being submersed among thousands of people. 

Pre-Commonwealth Dinner

Dinner! Photo taken by Alan Phillips.

Super excited & ready to dig in!
Photo taken by Jill Ball

I was quite tired after dinner and still feeling the up and down motion from the plane. I organised everything I needed the first day of the conference and plonked straight into bed. Excitement & happiness levels...

:-D